Policy In Vietnam Research Articles

The political economy of Internet innovation policy in Vietnam

Despite the government's central role in Internet innovation, Vietnam has one of the lowest Internet subscription rates in the world. This paper presents an analysis of Internet innovation in Vietnam. It is argued that one of the major reasons for the modest success is that Internet innovation policy is influenced more by ideo-political than socio-economic realism. To further Vietnam's integration into the world economy, it is recommended that the government relinquish control and liberate the sector to generate genuine competition.

HIV-associated TB in An Giang Province, Vietnam, 2001-2004: epidemiology and TB treatment outcomes.

BackgroundMortality is high in HIV-infected TB patients, but few studies from Southeast Asia have documented the benefits of interventions, such as co-trimoxazole (CTX), in reducing mortality during TB treatment. To help guide policy in Vietnam, we studied the epidemiology of HIV-associated TB in one province and examined factors associated with outcomes, including the impact of CTX use.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe retrospectively abstracted data for all HIV-infected persons diagnosed with TB from 2001–2004 in An Giang, a province in southern Vietnam in which TB patients receive HIV counseling and testing. We used standard WHO definitions to classify TB treatment outcomes. We conducted multivariate analysis to identify risk factors for the composite outcome of death, default, or treatment failure during TB treatment. From 2001–2004, 637 HIV-infected TB patients were diagnosed in An Giang. Of these, 501 (79%) were male, 321 (50%) were aged 25–34 years, and the most common self-reported HIV risk factor was sex with a commercial sex worker in 221 (35%). TB was classified as smear-positive in 531 (83%). During TB treatment, 167 (26%) patients died, 9 (1%) defaulted, and 6 (1%) failed treatment. Of 454 patients who took CTX, 116 (26%) had an unsuccessful outcome compared with 33 (70%) of 47 patients who did not take CTX (relative risk, 0.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.3–0.5). Adjusting for male sex, rural residence, TB smear status and disease location, and the occurrence of adverse events during TB treatment in multivariate analysis, the benefit of CTX persisted (adjusted odds ratio for unsuccessful outcome 0.1; CI, 0.1–0.3).Conclusions/SignificanceIn An Giang, Vietnam, HIV-associated TB was associated with poor TB treatment outcomes. Outcomes were significantly better in those taking CTX. This finding suggests that Vietnam should consider applying WHO recommendations to prescribe CTX to all HIV-infected TB patients.

Doves Among Hawks: Republican Opposition to the Vietnam War, 1964–1968

Most historians of the Vietnam conflict have extrapolated the Republican commitment to anticommunism generally and in Southeast Asia specifically into full‐scale support for the war within the party. Yet the evidence demonstrates that a number of influential Republicans—including John Sherman Cooper and George Aiken—vocally opposed the Johnson administration's Vietnam policies and advocated negotiations and de‐escalation as early as 1964. Unfortunately, their dissent has been almost totally neglected by the same historians who laud the antiwar efforts of prominent Democratic critics of the conflict. This article seeks to redress this oversight, examining Republican opposition to the war and contrasting the views of GOP doves with their hawkish counterparts.

Kimball's Vietnam War

This book brings together a collection of documents, including transcriptions of White House conversations and of personal interviews, pertaining to the end of the Vietnam War. The collection includes, in Jeffrey Kimball's reckoning, the most telling of the “millions” (p. 1) of sources relevant to the subject, which the author has arranged chronologically by topics. An introductory chapter on the Vietnam strategies of the Nixon and Ford administrations overviews the subject and brief introductions place each document in its context to facilitate understanding. According to Kimball, he drew the documents from archives in several countries in an endeavor to “resolve apparently unresolvable controversies about the what, how, and why of American, Vietnamese, Soviet, and Chinese policies and strategies” (p. 4) during the latter stages of the war. Most of the documents, however, come from a single depository, the Nixon Presidential Materials Project (NPMP) of the American National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Only a handful are from foreign sources, and most of those have been previously published.1 This imbalance is symptomatic of the tendency of American scholars, including those who claim to be internationalists, to see the 1954–1975 conflict in Vietnam as a chapter in American history in which the United States and its agents acted while others, including the Vietnamese parties, reacted. Thus, Kimball and the documents he offers present America's Vietnam policies as complex and multidimensional and those of its enemies as dogmatic and simplistic. The Nixon administration, to illustrate, pursued myriad strategies and schemes to bring the war to a satisfactory conclusion, while the Hanoi leadership pursued a single “fighting-whiletalking” approach.

Colliding Understandings of Biodiversity Conservation in Vietnam: Global Claims, National Interests, and Local Struggles

ABSTRACT In the course of the last decade, biodiversity conservation has become an important policy device in Vietnam's environmental sector. This article provides a political ecology analysis of the ascent and implementation of biodiversity conservation policy in Vietnam and draws on a case study of Ba Be district, located in Vietnam's northern mountain area. It shows how international conservationists and national counterparts were able to create new policy frameworks and to shape and alter the policy contexts in biodiversity-rich places. The article reveals the frictions among international, national, and local interests in biodiversity resources and points at the limits of strict conservation agendas for socially and environmentally meaningful policy outcomes. Only a path toward renegotiation of the current policy context seems able to mitigate further social and environmental pressure.

Strategic Services Policies and International Trade Integration in Vietnam

The aim of this paper is to analyze Vietnam's services policies and to evaluate their effectiveness and consistency, in the framework of the country's increasing international economic integration. Among the various services sectors, the paper focuses specifically on a sub-group, namely strategic services,(and on energy and telecommunications in particular. The paper is organized as follows. The introduction sketches a few basic facts about the Vietnamese economy. Section 1 underlines the key role of strategic services, and describes the main tenets of economic reforms in the domain of services. Section 2 analyzes the international trade dimension of services policies in Vietnam, presently characterized by the recent signing of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the US and by the ongoing multilateral negotiations aimed at accessing the WTO. Section 3 focuses on Vietnam's policies in the area of strategic services, with particular attention for energy and telecommunications. Section 5 proposes a few conclusive remarks. The Annex reports a few basic facts and figures on Vietnam's services sector.

'The Modern Barbarian': Nguyen Van Vinh and the Complexity Of Colonial Modernity in Vietnam

Abstract This article studies the life and socio-cultural works of Nguyen Van Vinh in order to understand better the complexity of 'colonial modernity' in Vietnam. Vinh saw in an alliance with colonial France the chance to modernise Vietnam in Western ways. Thanks to his translations and his essays on Vietnamese society and culture, he helped open the way to a larger cultural revolution in the 1930s. It was a way of dealing with the humiliation of colonial domination and a way of putting Vietnam back on a civilisational par with the rest of the 'modern' world. At the same time, Nguyen Van Vinh served as a powerful propaganda tool for the colonial state in its attempts to cut off Vietnam from her Asian context and ally her closely with colonial France through the Vietnamese language. Indeed, Nguyen Van Vinh provides a revealing example of the colonial origins of the Francophonie policy in Vietnam that began long before French decolonisation.

Synergy of adaptation and mitigation strategies in the context of sustainable development: the case of Vietnam

An emerging topic in current climate negotiations is the political momentum for recognising adaptation to climate change as a crucial part of a comprehensive climate policy. However, there are a number of arguments and doubts raised by politicians, negotiators and environmentalists alike with regard to the necessity of implementing adaptation in parallel with mitigation. The first aim of this article is to analyse possible contradictions and synergies between these two strategies and analyse the implications for developing countries and sustainable development targets. We then use Vietnam as a case study to demonstrate how to integrate mitigation and adaptation strategies that can provide additional benefits to the social welfare. This empirical analysis provides a basic understanding of how to address thorny questions in a nascent process of designing public climate policy in Vietnam. Lessons drawn from this research should be replicable in other developing countries having similar circumstances.

The lost revolution: Edward Lansdale and the American defeat in Vietnam 1964–1968

This article examines Edward Lansdale's return to South Vietnam during the Johnson administration. Lansdale offered a persuasive critique of the mistakes the American policy in Vietnam, but his potential influence was severely limited by a combination of bureaucratic infighting in Saigon and a general indifference to the political aspects of the conflict in Washington. While Lansdale was unable to signiflcantly influence the policies of the Johnson administration, his experience in Saigon during 1965–68 offers historians a unique perspective on many facets of American and South Vietnamese policymaking during a crucial period of the Vietnam War.

The Role of Presidential Advisory Systems in US Foreign Policy-Making: The Case of the National Security Council and Vietnam, 1953-1961

The historiography of Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency has undergone substantial shifts over the past two decades. While historians still debate Eisenhower's overall effectiveness, few accept the traditional assessment that he was a weak president. In The Role of Presidential Advisory Systems in US Foreign Policy-Making, Pasi Tuunainen definitely accepts the revisionist contention that Eisenhower was an effective president who utilized a carefully orchestrated advisory system to facilitate decision making. He arrives at this conclusion after using the development of Eisenhower's policies toward Vietnam as a case study for evaluating the effectiveness of the National Security Council (NSC) in presidential decision making. His study fills a definite void in the Eisenhower historiography and should be consulted by anyone studying either the NSC or American involvement in Vietnam in the 1950s. Tuunainen uses the multiple advocacy model as formulated by Alexander L. George to test the effectiveness of the NSC in providing advice to the Eisenhower administration concerning Vietnam. He traces the development and evolution of Eisenhower's Vietnam policies by carefully examining the discussions and debates in the NSC and its subordinate structures such as the Planning Board and the Operations Coordinating Board. He reveals that the situation in Vietnam was discussed in 20 percent of the NSC meetings from 1953 to 1961 and at times, especially in 1954 and 1955, was consistently one of the most important issues on the council's agenda. He argues that Eisenhower viewed those meetings as important, encouraged free-flowing ideas, debate, and discussion, and received careful, if sometimes flawed, advice.

Prelude to tragedy: Vietnam, 1960-1965

Foreword by Richard HolbrookeFive American and three Vietnamese participants in the early days of U.S. involvement in southeast Asia compellingly argue that the failure of American policy in Vietnam was not inevitable. The common theme of their individual essays suggests that the war in Vietnam might have had a much different and far less tragic outcome if U.S. policy makers had listened to experts with experience in Asia and combating communist revolutionary warfare and pursued a coherent and consistent counterinsurgency strategy instead of militarizing and Americanizing the struggle. The authors point out that against the advice of experts and the proven success of counterinsurgency programs in Malaya and the Philippines, senior policy makers made the fateful decision to develop the South Vietnamese Army as a mirror image of the U.S. Army rather than as a counter-guerilla force.The authors, who were involved in all levels of the counterinsurgency campaign, also cite as key factors in American policy failure: support for the coup that overthrew President Diem in 1963, bureaucratic in-fighting, and the lack of appreciation for the complexities of revolutionary warfare and the practicalities of grass-roots programs to combat it. A vivid account of that coup is included in the book with fresh insight into the pivotal event. Two essays written by former South Vietnamese senior officers who once fought with Communist Viet Minh forces provide a unique perspective of how both sides thought and functioned. While this devastating portrait can do nothing to change what has already transpired, it does offer significant lessons for the future and should not be ignored.

« Le barbare moderne » : Nguyen Van Vinh et la complexité de la modernisation coloniale au Vietnam

This article studies the life and social and cultural works of Nguyen Van Vinh in order to understand better the complexity of « colonial modernity » in Vietnam. Vinh saw in an alliance with colonial France the chance to modernise Vietnam in Western ways. Thanks to his translations and his essays on Vietnamese society and culture, he helped open the way to a larger cultural revolution in the 1930s. At the same time, he served as a powerful propaganda tool for the colonial State in its attempts to cut off Vietnam from her Asian context and ally her closely with colonial France by way of the Vietnamese language. Nguyen Van Vinh procides a revealing example as to the colonial origins of the Francophonie policy in Vietnam.

A Realist's Moral Opposition to War: Han J. Morgenthau and Vietnam

This article examines Hans J. Morgenthau's critique of U.S. policies in Vietnam. Morgenthau, renowned for his advocacy of realism in foreign affairs, was one of the few political commentators to raise questions about nation‐building efforts in South Vietnam in the 1950s. After full‐scale military intervention in the 1960s, he became the foremost academic critic of the war. Morgenthau demonstrated a dramatic evolution in his views. In the 1950s, he expressed reservations about Indochina policies based on pragmatic concerns. Over time, however, his analysis of Vietnam policies focused on their ethical shortcomings. His examination of the ethics of the Vietnam war led him to revise his notion of how national interests should be determined in making foreign policy, from a calculation based on purely strategic factors to one that also takes moral factors into account.

“Press Mess:” David Halberstam, the Buddhist Crisis, and U.S. Policy in Vietnam, 1963

Flames consumed the frail figure of a Buddhist monk on a busy Saigon street as an American reporter froze the image in time on film. That front-page photograph of the immolation of 73-year-old Thich Quang Duc in June 1963, was the first of many images of the Vietnam War that seared itself into the collective memory of a nation. For perhaps the first time, Americans were asked to take a close look at a little known war in a far off country; a war that soon would consume the American people and their passions. Media researchers have never agreed on the exact role of the media in, or their effect on, American society as a whole. However, studies have found that the angles, cultural frames, personal beliefs of reporters, and conventions of reporting, among other factors, combine to construct the news. These news constructs become images of reality for those who read and use the news. The central ideas, or that emerge from these news images can have a major affect on American political and foreign policy, policy makers, the public, and their leaders.1 A growing body of historical scholarship on the Vietnam War displays a degree of consensus that news coverage of the war had a great impact, both positively and negatively, on America's Vietnam policy. The tone and themes in media coverage of Vietnam changed from 1961 to 1968.2 The initial optimism and general support at the start of deeper American involvement in 1961 changed into growing skepticism about ultimate success and more cautious support by 1963. The cause for this change was a series of severe setbacks for South Vietnam and clear gains by the Communist Vietcong (VC) insurgency in that year. This skepticism and cautious support remained until the disillusioning Tet Offensive in 1968. After Tet, news coverage became more critical of continued American involvement in the war.3 Many studies of the early period of the Vietnam War (1961 to 1964) point to 1963 as a pivotal year for American policy and news coverage in Vietnam. Several critical events occurred that year which ended the initial optimism for a quick victory by the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN). In January, the VC defeated a superior ARVN force at the battle of Ap Bac. That summer, the Buddhist uprising exposed the weakness, repression, and unpopularity of the Ngo Dinh Diem regime. In November, the ARVN general staff staged a successful coup that ousted Diem and led to his unplanned assassination. The studies indicate that the news coverage of these events by the resident American reporters in Saigon had a significant impact on American policy and future media coverage of the conflict. Also, the news coverage strained relations between the government and the news media, and instilled a degree of institutional skepticism about the war among reporters.4 What follows is a study of the 1963 Buddhist uprising (known as the Buddhist Crisis), and David Halberstam's New York Times coverage of it. He was the only full-time reporter from the prestige papers who covered the crisis.5 The study involves a textual analysis of Halberstam's articles about the Buddhist Crisis published in the New York Times between May 29, 1963 and November 1, 1963, the day South Vietnamese generals staged the coup that overthrew Diem.6 It will examine how the themes Halberstam constructed in his coverage may have affected the policy of the American mission in Saigon, senior policy makers in Washington, including President John F. Kennedy, and relations between these policy makers and policy makers in the American news media.7 This study is significant because none of the extensive literature on this period has analyzed themes in the news coverage of the Buddhist Crisis, nor has any study examined the conventions of journalism prevalent in the early 1960s that reporters applied to their coverage of the crisis. Among the factors influencing the historical context in which Halberstam wrote his articles were: (1) the significance of Vietnam to overall American foreign policy; (2) the use of news management by the Kennedy administration and the media's reaction to it; (3) the failure of news management and its connection to the breakdown of relations between the reporters and officials in Vietnam; (4) the nature of journalistic practices and conventions current in the early 1960s; and (5) the presence of a paradox in journalism at the time, i. …

Family Policy in a Changing Vietnam

Discussed is the history of family policy in Vietnam during the 20th century. Particular emphasis is placed on the impact of the 1986 economic reforms that resulted in a shift from a socialist society to a free-market capitalistic system. Explored in more detail is the evolution of Vietnamese family law, family planning policy, the role of women and the issue of gender-equity as it relates to families, and the future of family policy in Vietnam. Comparisons are made with other similar developing nations.

Future policy directions for doi moi in Vietnam

During the 1980s Vietnam experienced a radical process of industrial and service sector liberalization, known as doi moi. The process was initiated by the government as a means for managing the collapse in overseas financial support occasioned by the demise of its principal supporter, the former Soviet Union. In this paper we focus on the currency and state owned enterprise (SOE) aspects of doi moi. The paper has several aims. First, we examine the effectiveness of the currency policy introduced under doi moi through which the Vietnamese government has attempted to stabilize the VNDong with the overall aim of reversing the dollarization process and restoring confidence in the domestic currency. Second, we discuss possible capital markets instruments which may now be suitable for government financing, such as the suitability of commodity indexed bonds, a debt conversion program and establishment of a private development trust fund. Third, we consider the macroeconomic implications of Vietnam's accession to ASEAN. Lastly, we make a number of recommendations for future macroeconomic policy in Vietnam.

Gender and Technology Policy in Vietnam

This paper seeks to contribute to the debate on Vietnam’s economic renovation program by exploring the thus far neglected relationship between gender and technology. It shows how the sequencing of reforms since 1986 have not adequately paid attention to this relationship. While much emphasis has been placed on gender equality as a matter of principle, policy practices have neglected the gender barriers that minimize women’s access to employment, training and technology. Vietnam’s policy choice of export-led development, which is different from that based primarily on technology transfer through import, needs to be reinforced by a framework for understanding gender relations, technology and development. Such an understanding is urgently needed given (a) the significant role of the familymanaged agricultural sector and the small-scale industrial sector in generating income and employment on a national scale, and (b) the concentration of female labor in these two sectors. Some conceptual and methodological issues are raised to develop a research and policy agenda.

A Voice from the Wilderness: Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War, 1964–1966

Upon ascending to the presidency January 1969, Richard Nixon commented that he had inherited a war not of his making from his predecessor, Lyndon B. Johnson.(1) Admittedly, the United States faced an increasingly difficult situation Vietnam at the time of Nixon's election. Yet, Nixon was being too modest by assigning responsibility for the war Vietnam to the Johnson administration alone. Indeed, during his years in the wilderness as a private citizen following his defeat the 1962 California gubernatorial election, Nixon consistently criticized Johnson's Vietnam policy. As a respected voice foreign affairs and as arguably the Republican Party's leading spokesman on Vietnam, Nixon forced the administration to acknowledge and respond to his rhetoric, which spurred Johnson to greater involvement the war. Thus, Nixon should be held at least partially responsible for the situation he confronted on his inauguration; he helped to create it. Nixon's hawkishness on the Vietnam conflict during 1964-66 has been largely ignored by students of the war.(2) Given Nixon's role the denouement of the war--and indeed America's involvement Southeast Asia during virtually the entire period from Dien Bien Phu 1954 to the fall of Saigon 1975--an understanding of Nixon's views during the years preceding his election seems critical to a complete understanding of Nixon's presidential decisions on Vietnam. This article will address those issues, focusing specifically on Nixon as a critic of America's Vietnam policies during the Johnson administration's escalation of the American presence the conflict Southeast Asia. In addition, it will examine and reaffirm the importance of domestic politics the making and understanding of U.S. foreign policy.(3) Rising from the Ashes On November 7, 1962, Richard Nixon's political career appeared to be at an end. Having just been defeated by Pat Brown the California gubernatorial election, the former vice president declared, You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, sounding like a man who planned to fade into the footnotes of history. Yet, Nixon returned almost immediately to the public spotlight and began his long journey back into contention for the presidency. First, he relocated to New York an effort to establish a base for his political ambitions. He then became the senior partner an old, conservative, and respected Wall Street law firm, which enabled him to rub shoulders with domestic and international VIPs from business and politics. Nixon also began to travel extensively, making contacts with foreign dignitaries, enhancing his knowledge of foreign affairs, and honing his rhetorical and campaign skills.(4) As a visible New York attorney, Nixon positioned himself an ideal situation for a political comeback. He could criticize political insiders without being responsible for the consequences of his actions. His nonincumbency gave him an important advantage over Johnson particular. He was free to state his objections to policy without having to account to Congress or the electorate. Nixon had the luxury of being forthright, unencumbered by the restraints of office.(5) As a result, he could rehabilitate his public image without running the risk of losing another election or being rebuked by an official constituency. In Lyndon Johnson, he had a convenient and stationary target. Constrained by the demands of the presidency and preoccupied with building the Great Society and other domestic political concerns, Johnson could not afford to devote all of his personal and institutional resources to foreign policy and Vietnam--and indeed did not want to do so.(6) Nixon, on the other hand, could hammer away at the administration's indecisiveness and lack of initiative. Despite these handicaps, Johnson retained the advantages of his office. The president of the United States has the ability to set the national agenda and to focus attention away from problems--if those problems do not become too critical or pressing. …

Why the Senate slept: the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the beginning of America's Vietnam war

Prologue Introduction Background to Passage of S.J. 189 Passage S.J. 189--The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution Was There an American Policy in Vietnam? The Gathering Storm Rolling Thunder Epilogue Appendix I: President Johnson's Address of August 4, 1964 Appendix II: Senate Resolution 189 Appendix III: Statement of Honorable Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense, Before Joint Committees of House and Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations, August 6, 1964 Appendix IV: Secretary Rusk's Full Statement Appendix V: Was There a Precedent for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution? Appendix VI: Address of Senator John F. Kennedy, April 6, 1954 Appendix VII: Text of President Johnson's Speech Delivered on April 7, 1965 at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore Appendix VIII: Text of Presidential Message Accompanying H.J. Resolution 447, A Supplemental Military Appropriation Bill for $700 Million Appendix IX: Letter of April 24, 1975 from Frank Valeo to Senator Gaylord Nelson Bibliography Index

Gender and Technology Policy in Vietnam

This paper seeks to contribute to the debate on Vietnam’s economic renovation program by exploring the thus far neglected relationship between gender and technology. It shows how the sequencing of reforms since 1986 have not adequately paid attention to this relationship. While much emphasis has been placed on gender equality as a matter of principle, policy practices have neglected the gender barriers that minimize women’s access to employment, training and technology. Vietnam’s policy choice of export-led development, which is different from that based primarily on technology transfer through import, needs to be reinforced by a framework for understanding gender relations, technology and development. Such an understanding is urgently needed given (a) the significant role of the familymanaged agricultural sector and the small-scale industrial sector in generating income and employment on a national scale, and (b) the concentration of female labor in these two sectors. Some conceptual and methodological issues are raised to develop a research and policy agenda.